Utpala
Utpala was a member of the Vritra clan and a character in the finite. She is deceased by the time of the Kubera storyline. Appearance She was born female, but as a member of the Vritra clan she was forced to adopt the male gender following a negotiation between her King and the primeval gods. Utpala used to have profound blue hair varying from pale blue to almost black, just like her eyes. Her hair was shoulder length and her horns were grey with a small hint of blue. She had white skin and seemed to be surrounded by a pale light. Utpala favored the appearance of a twelve-year-old girl. Her hair was the most beautiful, but as predicted by Visnu, it had "rotted" to a mixture of red and black by the time she was in male form. Utpala was also taller and stronger as a man. In male form, he has a slender physique. His hair is short and partially red, blending into black. He wears a pair of curved blue-grey horns. In Sura form, she had a gorgeous pair of black wings with red patterns. Utpala's body had relatively small limbs and a scattered red armor. The parts that weren't covered by the armor had a tinge of black. Her appearance made it easy for her to impersonate Taksaka. Personality Utpala described herself as overly emotional and someone who used to cry a lot when she still had feelings. She was impulssive and was quick to speak her mind. Utpala was deeply in love with Taksaka and the closest to him before the race scattered. She became easily jealous when it came to Tak and his anger was extremely muted towards her. She was very insecure and feared he would leave her for another woman. Even after the penalty, Utpala remained one of the most emotional dragons, being shown crying and feeling jealous for Taksaka. Her behaviour stayed the same, with Utpala trying to hug, pinch and sit in Tak's lap. This caused the Destruction Dragon to chase her away. Later on, feeling lonely, she started a relationship with a female human "with purple hair and a pretty smile" and had a Half child. Utpala felt proud and decided to look after the village, when she believed her village had been destroyed and no one survived , Utpala lost her will to live. Moreover, she was protective towards Ian and didn't want to be left as a villain. History When she was first created and named by Visnu, he warned her that her beautiful hair would lose its beauty as she let her heart rot and that she would meet a horrible end trying to get something out of her grasp. As a result, Utpala had always been afraid of Visnu and never confronted him afterwards. She was the first to approach and befriend Taksaka. Because she had no other friends aside from him, Tak spoiled her a lot. Love between dragons ended in death, so many Vritra Nastika entered relationship with Suras from other clans. Whenever a female Nastika would try to get close to the Destruction Dragon or get his attention, Utpala would kill or pester her until she left. As a result, she made a lot of enemies among Nastikas and only Tak's protection kept her safe. She took part in the meeting called by Vritra to announce the agreement he made with the Primeval Gods. Utpala is among those that opposed the negotiation, because they found the measure too strict. She openly objected, claiming the Breath wasn't such an important skill as to give up their feelings. Despite most dragons agreeing with her, there were no other ideas to solve the problem. She looked for Taksaka's support and started to cry when he didn't answer. To calm her down, Tak sat Utpala in his lap, but understanding there was no other way to avoid his species' extinction, he supported his King's decision. Utpala swore him that she would always love him, even if their feelings were heavily numbed, and warned Taksaka she would do anything to have his attention. Tak told her he'd forgive her no matter what she did. Still, she was greatly affected by the decision taken and refused to assume male form. Utpala tried to convince Taksaka to intervene on her behalf with the Primeval Gods and convince them to allow only her to remain in female form. He refused and explained her that the race as a whole came before her. In order to convince her to agree, he promised she'd remain the closest dragon to him, regardless of her gender. However, once Vritra Nastika were forced to take male form and lost most of their feelings, Utpala tried to keep his relationship with the Destruction Dragon the same as before. Taksaka was unable to control his anger and chased her away for her own good. She reappeared upon finding out he was living with Vasuki and tried to stay with them in the nest. Utpala would pinch his arm, sit in his lap and hug him by surprise. Taksaka couldn't accept it anymore, especially with other Nastika nearby and asked her to keep her distance. In an angry state, Utpala provoked Urvasi, who was also there. Eventually, when Urvasi got angry, Utpala hid behind Tak. The Gandharva Nastika had to give up and left, not before warning the Destruction Dragon that his relationship with the other dragon would cause him many problems with other Nastikas. Realizing Urvasi was right, Taksaka asked the other dragon to leave and never to come back. As she had promised, she started to impersonate Tak and increase his notoriety to get his attention. This proved unsuccessful and she grew lonely. In the effort of forgetting her love for Taksaka, she caught interest for a human girl, who gave birth to a dragon Half. Her child became the object of worship for the village. Utpala discovered that she could have feelings other than jealousy, and decided to protect her own descendants from the shadows. She stopped impersonating the Destruction Dragon and heard a prophecy that Tak would fall in love with a child of her line. Vritra also heard the prophecy and destroyed the village in a - later revealed futile - effort to prevent Taksaka from meeting Ian, since he would avoid fighting. Because the King claimed to be Tak and Utpala had a history of impersonating the no. 2 of the Vritra Clan, she was framed as a result. She suspected that it had been Visnu who told Vritra about the prophecy. Utpala had no evidence to prove her theory and she knew Taksaka was very close to Visnu, but chose to look for her fellow dragon and warn him about the Primeval God. She went to his nest, only to find Vasuki alone there. They have a little fight, where Vasuki warns her he's stronger than her and promises to let Tak know she was there. Utpala refuses to settle down and demands to know where he is, seeing tears in her eyes, Vasuki explains Taksaka is in Willarv. Hearing that, the dragon suspects Ian might actually have survived. Utpala arrives at Willarv and pays a little visit to the place where Ian's village used to be. Through unknown means, she confirms that Ian is still alive and sets to find her and Tak. She finds them both in Mythshore and attacks the city, turning it into an island. Utpala managed to lure them out and surafied. The dragons headed for outer space and fought for a brief time. Taksaka pushed Utpala to Fedust (Willarv's sun), since her water attribute would make such a high temperature fatal for her. Before plunging into Fedust herself, she notices Ian on Tak's head and briefly abducted her using her Unique Transcendental. There Utpala revealed as a dying gift to Ian her tragic story and unrequited love, and hinted that she was not the culprit behind Ian's sufferings, but rather the scapegoat. However, she refused to unveil to Ian the true culprit, as a fight between Taksaka and Vritra would be dangerous for the Universe. When saying her goodbyes to Ian, her hair turns blue again and she wishes Ian and Taksaka a happy life. Notes *Utpala's name means 'water lily' in Sanskrit. *She's known as the "Azure Lotus Dragon" due the name of her unique transcendental skill, which creates a fantasy landscape with a lake full of blue and purple lilies around the intended target. *Utpala is behind Agwen's eye colour and facial features, a possibility that Taksaka, when faced with his own granddaughter in the novel's epilogue, seemes to have caught. *She never told anyone she had been the dragon protecting Ian's village or that she had descendants. *Despite her closeness with Taksaka, she was never allowed to call him Tak. *Unknown to her, Taksaka kept her safe from other Nastikas even after their fight by stating he didn't want her to die. *According to her, Taksaka will regret her death one day. *Because of her long period of female-gender identity, there is high possibility of her child being female, the one who was born about 700 years before Kasak was conceived. es:Utpala